Climate Change Bill [HL]

I thank my noble friend Lord Crickhowell for his contribution. I always like his blend of cautious impatience, if I may put it like that. However, I do not share his pessimism about the outcome of this debate. It may not be necessary for an amendment to be tabled on Report. These Benches are party to this group of amendments, except Amendment No. 118, and we think that the exclusion of international aviation from the Climate Change Bill is illogical and, frankly, not easy to understand. Amending this clause should surely be a priority for anyone concerned with ensuring that the Bill works. Due to the seriousness of the issue, I want to reiterate, for the record, the scope of the problem. Aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. The Department for Transport projects that aviation will emit 17.4 million tonnes of carbon in 2050—equivalent to 26 per cent of the total UK carbon allowance—in the unlikely event that the target stays at a 60 per cent reduction. This of course means that in the face of an 80 per cent target, aviation emissions will account for more than half the UK’s carbon emissions. The difficulty with aviation, as has been pointed out by the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, is that it also has a range of non-CO2 effects on climate and emits a number of gases. Additionally, emissions at altitude multiply their impact. In its 1999 report Aviation and the Global Atmosphere, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put the multiplier effect at two to four times the actual emission because it is emitted at high altitude. If this is taken into account and aviation remains excluded, aviation will account for well over the total UK allowance by 2050, assuming a target of 80 per cent. That is painting the most dramatic picture but it shows the key role that solving this problem has in achieving a reduction in carbon emissions. It is simply too serious to ignore and it is illogical. If the goal is to reduce the contribution that the UK makes to global warming by genuinely reducing carbon emissions, how can the Government ignore one of the biggest contributing factors? To use a simple analogy, it is like passing a drink-driving law that sets a limit on the alcohol level but then excludes whisky from being counted. The inclusion of international aviation has been recommended by major environmental lobbies and, as the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, said, by the Joint Committee on the draft Bill. Is the Minister content to ignore those recommendations? As it stands, the illogical exclusion of international aviation from the carbon budgets could lead to the Bill being interpreted in a rather perverse way in the sense that carbon emissions could be reduced by encouraging people to fly as opposed to going by road or any other form of transport. As the Bill is currently drafted, a policy that would help to reach the budgets would be to close the Channel Tunnel, for example, and transfer passengers on to international flights where the emissions would not count. I am not suggesting that that will happen, but it is the issue in a nutshell. We live in an integrated transport world and if we want people to make proper decisions to reduce their carbon footprint at a personal level, international aviation must be included in the system. The Government maintain that the international aspect makes it hard to establish how to include those emissions, but they are already reported. Indeed, the Bill includes a report of our contributions without including them in the budgets. Will the Minister explain that discrepancy?